A Werewolf, a Human and a Stiles Walk Into A Bar
by The Red Hoodie
Summary: AU! Stiles and Derek hit the road to find Laura. Only, they find Kenzi instead, a runaway with a personality to match that of the Jeep's owner. Things happen as the motley trio travel from California to New York in search of Derek's sister. The things that happen…aren't always fun and exciting, but they'll make for an interesting story to tell their kids; if they live that long.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer:** I own none of the characters or the places unique to these fandoms. I do own any original storyline ideas that come up within this writing.

**Title:** A Werewolf, a Human and a Stiles Walk Into A Bar  
**Author:** The Red Hoodie  
**Rating:** T for things  
**Shows:** Teen Wolf, Lost Girl  
**Characters:** Derek Hale, Kenzi "Williams", Stiles Stilinski  
**Chapters:** 1 of MANY  
**Summary:** AU! Stiles and Derek hit the road to find Laura. Only, they find Kenzi instead, a runaway with a personality to match that of the Jeep's owner. Things happen as the motley trio travel from California to New York in search of Derek's sister. The things that happen…aren't always fun and exciting, but they'll make for an interesting story to tell their kids; if they live that long.  
**A/N:** So I love these characters with my entire heart. Derek/Kenzi/Stiles own my soul, in every shape way and form of my being. So, I decided to make this AU fic. It's fun, it's angsty, it's everything in between. Time to forget just about EVERYTHING you learned on the show and just go with it. I promise to explain everything as it goes on. Enjoy?

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**Chapter One**

_Stiles Stilinski. Age: 18 and three quarters. College student. Goob. Currently: sitting in a backless chair, spinning around and making himself dizzy._

His roommate was already packed and ready to go, while Stiles hadn't even opened up a box yet to _begin_ packing. The sudden rap on the dorm door caught him off guard and he fell off the chair with a thud and a curse. Grumbling, he walked to the door and pulled it open, ready to bitch out whoever it was on the other side of the door.

He wasn't confronted with a babyfaced freshmen coming to tell him that the final dorm meeting was going on, nor was it Lydia, the girl Stiles had been pining for since he spotted her in Psych 101.

No, it was the grim faced, leather jacket clothed werewolf from Beacon Hills that was in Stiles' doorway.

"What the—"

_Derek Hale. Age: 20 and a half. Werewolf. Jackass. Currently: shoving his way into a dorm room, determination on his mind._

"Where's Laura?" Derek barked, his form lumbering and filling the small room.

"Uh…your sister?" Stiles backed up, stumbling over the overturned chair into his cluttered desk.

He advanced, gripping Stiles' shirt in his hands. "Yes. Have you seen her?"

Stiles shook his head, nervously licking his lips. "I've been here," he said, trying to keep calm. "Me and your sister were never buddy-buddy, Derek, why would she have come here?"

Derek glared at him for a few elongated moments, before he let out a frustrated growl and shoved Stiles, pushing himself backward a step. He rubbed a hand against his face and headed toward the door before turning back to Stiles.

"Do you have a car?"

"Hmm?" Stiles raised his eyebrows, straightening up. "Um…yeah. The good ol' Jeep's still kicking."

Derek walked forward again, hand outstretched. "Keys."

"Whaaaat?" Stiles set his jaw and pulled himself up to his full lanky height. "No way. No one drives my Jeep but me."

Derek showed surprise at Stiles' defiance. "Then I'll just have to steal a car," he said with a shrug, dropping his hand.

Stiles bit his tongue and ran a hand over his buzzcut. Derek swung around, ready to walk out of the room, when Stiles finally folded and said, "Wait. Just…what do you need a car for?"

Derek turned around, his controlled face hiding his smugness. "I'm going to look for Laura."

"That's it?"

"I have no idea where she is. She never liked cells, so I basically have to stop by every state to try to catch her scent," Derek explained further.

Stiles raised his eyebrows and took a step forward, looking around for a bag. Finding a duffle shoved under his bedframe, he picked it up and unzipped it, grabbing a few things off the top of the desk and shoving them inside.

"What are you doing?" Derek asked, watching Stiles pull out clothes out and put them in the bag.

"I'm coming with you," Stiles said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. He grabbed his newly filled bottle of Adderall and added it to the top of the bag before zipping it. "It'll be like a roadtrip right? You needing my car plus I don't feel like spending my summer in Beacon Hills equals _roadtrip _baby!" Stiles picked up the bag and turned around, faced with Derek's 'what the fuck' face. "Wolf…y?" he tried again.

"Whatever," Derek said, reaching for the door handle.

"Do you think I should at least pull things together…" Stiles bit his lip and looked around the mess that was his room. "Hold this." Shoving his bag in Derek's hands, he quickly pulled out his suitcases from under his bed.

"What the hell are you doing?" Derek asked, dropping the duffle bag at the door.

"Packing," Stiles stated the obvious. He started shoving his clothes and books into the suitcases. Mostly everything fit, and it was better than leaving his dad with a whole room to pack up. He forced the zippers closed, grabbed his jacket off the end of the bed and was _finally_ ready. Derek hadn't lifted a finger, only standing at the door, arms crossed, leaning against the wall, the duffle at his feet.

"Took you long enough," he muttered, pulling open the door and letting in all the noise from the hall. A flurry of freshmen and sophomores and a handful of juniors saying their goodbyes, packing their rooms, moving things out of dorms greeted them.

Bag slung over his shoulder, Stiles shuffled out after Derek, spotting a particular strawberry blonde walking by. "Hey, Lydia," Stiles said over the noise.

She turned, revealing a flush face and wide green eyes. "Hi. Stiles, right?" Her voice was full and warm, however her eyes were eyeing Tall, Dark and Handsome standing next to the Tall, Pale and Spazzy who had talked to her. "Are you leaving already?"

"Yeah," Stiles said, realizing he hadn't planned what to say to her after the initial hello and he was going to come off as an idiot. "Hitting the road for the summer."

"Oh!" She sounded impressed, though her sparkling eyes were aimed in Derek's direction. Until she realized she was being rude and trained them in Stiles. "Sounds like fun. We should get together in September and you can tell me all about it." With that, she smiled her perfect white smile, waved and continued down the hall.

Stiles stared after her, not sure if he had dreamed the words she had left with. Suddenly, Derek was grabbing him by his jacket collar and dragging him down the hall and stairs.

"Dude, let me go," Stiles complained, shoving Derek off. "Man, I know I'm irresistible but keep your paws off."

Derek growled and shoved his hands into his jacket pockets. Guilt began to seep through Stiles' mind, but before it could completely overtake him, he spotted his roommate and called him over.

"What's up?" Danny asked, eying Derek like he was about to get mugged.

"I'm uh...leaving. On a trip," Stiles said, clapping Danny on the shoulder. "I packed most of my stuff. If you're still here when my Dad comes, tell him I'm fine, will ya?"

Danny nodded slowly. "Sure, yeah. But who's that?" He jerked his head in Derek's direction.

Stiles let out a nervous laugh and jabbed a thumb in Derek's direction. "Who, him? Just an old friend from my hometown. He missed me," Stiles said with a shrug.

Danny didn't believe him, but he didn't say anything about it. "Okay," he nodded, glancing once more at Derek before giving Stiles a goodbye pat on the shoulder and walking off to join a group of people planning something or other.

"Who's that?" Derek asked once he and Stiles were outside. The sun was out and it was warm for a mid-May day.

"Roommate," Stiles replied, watching faces pass around him that he knew, but didn't _know_. He knew more faces and names than people he actually talked to. It wasn't that he didn't try, he just needed a special type of person to keep up with him and there weren't many in his dorm that could do that. "If you don't have a car, how'd you get all the way here?"

"I'm staying at a hotel not far from here. I've been looking for Laura...I started in Beacon Hills, thought she might have went to visit our Uncle Peter but she hadn't been there."

"So the first person who came to mind to ask where your sister went was me?" Stiles looked over at Derek quizzically, his bag bouncing against his back.

Derek sent him a glare. "You weren't my first choice."

"Ouch, that hurts," Stiles gave a look of mock pain. "We were friends once, you know."

"Yeah." Pause. "Where the hell is your car?"

It was true; they'd been friends despite the age difference. They both went to Beacon Hills public schools and were always singled out for different reasons. Stiles because of his father's job as deputy—he hadn't been promoted to Sheriff until this past year—and Derek because of his family's oddness what with living in the middle of the woods. They were friends; not _best_ friends, but close enough that Stiles found out about the Hale family secret—being werewolves—and was totally cool about it. Derek had learned to deal with Stiles' hyperness and they had been friends from middle school all the way up until Derek's family was killed in a fire and he and his sister moved across the country. That had been not even two years ago, and Stiles had just about forgotten all about the werewolves roaming the world and had been getting on with his normal life until Derek Hale showed up at his doorstep.

"Its right there," Stiles pointed. His Jeep was his prized possession. It was beat up, had over one hundred thousand miles on it already but it still hung on and he was determined to make it last as long as was physically possible for a piece of machinery.

It was odd to Derek how familiar a sight the many-toned blue Jeep was, but Stiles had always been the one with the car; even before he could legally drive it, Derek had grown accustomed to being behind the wheel. "Are you sure you want to come?" he asked, stepping around to the passenger side. He tried the handle; locked.

"You can't get rid of me that easily, Derek." Stiles unlocked his door and crawled in, reaching over to unlock the other before tossing his bag in the backseat.

"I don't know how long this will take," Derek said, climbing inside and pulling the door shut with a distinct thud.

"I really don't care," Stiles said honestly, pulling his phone out of his pocket. "Let me just call my dad." His heart thudded like he was calling a girl for the first time as he put his phone to his ear and listened to it ring. He had never done anything like this before. He was a good kid, he didn't run off with glaring werewolves on a cross country trip on a whim. That wasn't Stiles Stilinski.

"Stiles?" Stiles' dad's voice came through the phone as groggy, like he'd just been woken up. "Aren't you coming home tomorrow? Did something happen?"

Stiles glanced over at Derek. "Uh...about that."

"Stiles." His tone stated that he wasn't in the mood for games. "What's going on?"

"It's nothing, I swear. Just a bunch of people from my dorm decided to go out on a roadtrip."

"A roadtrip."

"Yeah. Driving in vehicles across the country." It stung Stiles to lie to his dad, but he'd been doing that ever since he was fourteen and found out about what Derek really was.

"Who are you going with? Danny?" The Sheriff liked Danny when they'd met once or twice.

Stiles was having a staring contest with Derek. "Um...remember Derek?" he squeaked out. Derek's eyes narrowed.

Pause. "Derek Hale? From Beacon Hills?"

"Right yeah, that's the one." A long silence on his dad's end of the line made Stiles pull the phone from his ear to check if his phone had died or the line cut off. "Uh, Dad?"

"Yeah."

"So I'm going on a roadtrip with Derek. I packed all my stuff...you'll have to come by and pick it up." Stiles turned toward the steering wheel, gripping it in a hand and tracing the shape with his eyes. "Is that okay?"

Mr. Stilinski let out a long breath. Stiles could imagine him sitting in his armchair, running a hand over his face. "You're not a kid anymore, Stiles," was his answer. "You're lucky I have tomorrow off. I'll pick up your things."

"Danny should still be there to let you in," Stiles explained. "If not, the RA's at the end of the hall."

"Yeah, yeah." Another pause. "Stiles?"

"Yeah, Dad?"

"Just watch out for yourself, will ya?"

Stiles swallowed. "Yeah. I will. Bye Dad."

"Yeah, bye, son."

Stiles clenched his jaw and stared at his phone for a moment before putting it back in his pocket and reaching for the keys to start the engine.

"That went well," Derek said once the engine roared to life.

Stiles brought his hand down against the steering wheel. "Of course, you heard all of that."

"Obviously."

Shaking his head, Stiles checked his mirrors before turning in his seat and backing out of his spot. A few stop signs later, they were out on a main street in town. "So, where're you staying?"

The place Derek was staying wasn't a fabulous hotel, but it had a gate around the premise and a pool. Derek had Stiles wait in the Jeep when he went in to get his things.

Stiles turned up the radio until he found a song that wasn't sung by one of the new age boy bands and beat against the wheel like it was a drum set. He was so into it that he nearly jumped out of his skin when Derek suddenly opened the door. "Oh my God," he let slip.

Derek ignored him and shoved his bag in the back and got in himself. He reached forward and turned the music all the way down. "You're not gunna let me drive?"

Stiles shook his head. "Hell no."

"This is gunna take ten times as long if you don't let me drive."

Stiles resisted the urge to stick his tongue out and just pulled out of the hotel and onto the main road. "Where are we headed?"

"North. Oregon, Washington." Derek knew that Laura preferred trees to desert, so they could cross out the high desert states; which left them with about forty-three states. This was going to take all summer.

"Are we going to Canada? I don't have a passport," Stiles said, heading toward the highway.

"Neither do I. I don't think Laura would leave the States," Derek said as the Jeep picked up speed.

"Right, well, you'd know her best." Stiles shot him a glance and moved to turn up the radio.

They were both silent as Stiles pulled onto I-5 North and once he was settled in the middle lane, he began to talk.

"What happened after you left?" he asked first. Truth be told, he hadn't heard a peep from his previous friend since he and Laura had moved away from Beacon Hills.

Derek wasn't going to say anything. He was going to keep up his silent routine. It wouldn't be the first time he had ignored answering questions by just not talking and glaring. But he knew that they'd be stuck in this car for at least a month and Stiles was bound to keep asking him, so why not get it out of the way right off the bat. "We went to New York. Laura got work, she forced me to get my GED and start college."

"You went to college?" Stiles scoffed. Derek wasn't one to fit in even at high school, he couldn't imagine him dealing with college.

"For two semesters," Derek said with an added glare at Stiles' condescending tone. "Then I got work as a mechanic and Laura spent most of her time trying to keep me from tracking down the hunters that..."

Stiles looked over at him out of the corner of his eye. "And what made her leave?"

"I don't know." His words were honest. He wish he did know where his sister had gone and why. She was an Alpha, she could handle herself, he knew that, but that didn't make him feel any better about not knowing where she was. "Maybe she found some long lost family or she's been looking for the hunters all this time. It shouldn't be hard to find them. I know who they are."

It didn't take a genius to know they were stepping into dangerous territory. Stiles was probably the only person in Beacon Hills who knew the truth about the fire. He didn't know how it happened, but he had found out about Derek and Kate Argent accidentally and he wouldn't leave Derek alone until the werewolf divulged his secret affair. Derek wasn't that far away from eighteen when it started, he didn't know she was a hunter but he should have, and Stiles had found out for himself who had started the fire at the Hale house. Stiles had wanted to tell his dad, but Derek had threatened him—"If you tell, I'll rip your throat out…with my teeth".

"Right. So she's not in Beacon Hills," Stiles said to redirect the subject to something less likely to make Derek wolf out and possibly rip his upholstery. "So she wasn't stopping by for a family visit."

"No, I guess not."

"And how the hell are we going to find her? Stop by all of the little werewolf outposts across the country?"

"There's no such thing. But I can...track her. Try to figure out where she might go. I've been trying to think of places she would go, but she never talked about herself all that much." Derek gripped his knees with his hands. He liked to think he and Laura had a close relationship...but he knew that wasn't true. It wasn't close like in a human sense. Families with wolves involved ran by a different code, including how kids were raised and how affection was shown between family members. He was closer to Laura than his other family, even their parents, but it didn't always mean close in the way most people thought of it.

"Hmm...are you gunna pay for gas? Because I am not made out of money."

"I'll pay for gas if you let me drive," Derek offered.

Stiles made a face, eyes glued to the road. He wasn't going to budge, but he really didn't have enough money to get farther than Oregon, and he knew it. Finally, he gave in. "Fuck! Fine, you can drive half the time. But I get to pick the radio station."

"Fine," Derek closed the deal by smacking Stiles on the back of the head.

"Ow! What the hell was that for?" Stiles exclaimed, swinging an arm in Derek's direction. All his knuckles did was bounce against Derek's shoulder.

Derek just shrugged, trying to hide a smug look that threatened to come over his features.

88

Five hours later, it was nine o'clock, just dark and Derek was driving. They had switched over after stopping for dinner.

"Are we just gunna drive? Don't you have to get out and sniff around?" Stiles asked, squinting at his phone. "We're in Oregon, you know."

"I saw the sign."

"Are we gunna stop for the night or..." He leaned forward to check the sky. Definitely not close to the full moon. Good.

"I've only been driving for an hour."

"So? We should find a place and get a map and figure out where the hell we're going."

Derek growled in annoyance, but knew Stiles was right. They were getting close to Ashland, which was as good a place as any to stop. He pulled off I-5 at the next exit, which made Stiles pep up a bit.

"Where'd you get all your money from anyway?" Stiles asked as they moved onto streets without lamps.

"Does it matter?"

Stiles lips turned down at the corners. "I guess not." Putting away his phone, he settled back in the seat and looked out the windshield. A moment later, he swore that he saw someone walking down the side of the road but they were too far off to tell for sure. "Do you see that?"

Derek sucked in a breath. "Just a hitchhiker, Stiles."

Stiles sat forward, squinting. "Dude, I think it's a chick."

"Stiles." Derek's tone was warning.

"Hey, my car, my rules, buddy," Stiles pulled rank. "Slow down." He rolled down his window and peeked out more clearly. The figure walked under one slim street lamp and he saw that it was in fact, a girl toting an enormous duffle bag. "Okay, drive past and pull over."

"You're kidding me."

"No. You wanted to drive." He sat back in the seat as they drove past her and Derek pulled over to the side. Stiles tried not to move the side mirror and watched as the girl bounded up to the car, with her bag—the size almost as big as her—and Stiles smacked Derek's shoulder with the back of his hand when he saw her face in the mirror.

"Hey," she said breathlessly, stopping at the Jeep's window. She was surprised to find herself looking at two attractive guys and not an old sleazy man. "Hey," she said again, her tone different.

_Kenzi 'Williams'. Aged: 19 and three months. Runaway. Spunky. Currently: heart racing, feet aching, standing at the side of a Jeep about to crumble under the weight of her duffle._

"Heeey," Stiles said, failing at sounding sexy. Beside him, Derek rolled his eyes.

She smiled, showing straight white teeth and dimples. "Where are you headed?" she asked, leaning against the door.

"North," Derek said shortly.

"And then east," Stiles added with a nervous smile.

"Great! That's just where I'm going." She took a step back from the car, giving them the option of driving off or letting her in. She prayed for the latter because she was sure her feet were about to fall off if she walked another step.

In the car, Stiles glanced over at Derek who was giving him a look that said he'd pay for this later. Stiles couldn't help himself. He hopped out of the car and pulled back the seat, shoving his and Derek's bags to one side. "I'm sure you can fit back there," Stiles said, holding out his hands in an offering.

Kenzi got a better look at him out of the car. He was tall and thin with buzzed hair and a rather adorable face. She smiled and handed over her bag, crawling into the back seat. He handed her bag back and she shoved it on the seat next to her as Stiles climbed back in.

She smelled like she had been on the road for a while. Grease and dirt and exhaust tainted her scent and Derek rolled down his own window before he started driving.

"I'm Kenzi, by the way," she said, voice small.

"Oh right. I'm Stiles, that's Derek." Stiles poked Derek on the shoulder.

"Thanks for stopping, I think my feet would have fallen off if I had to walk anymore." She had been walking on her own ever since the sun had gone down. Sitting forward in her seat, she glanced between the two of them, or at least what she could see of them, and bit down on a thumb nail. "Are you two like...together?"

Derek almost slammed on the brakes, ready to tell her to leave, but Stiles let out a snorty laugh that distracted him. "Us? We? Pha!" Stiles chuckled, turning around in his seat so he could see her. "We're just friends."

"I don't think we're even that anymore," Derek said through clenched teeth.

"Dude, hurtful!" Stiles shook his head. "Don't mind him. He's just an obligatory grouch."

Kenzi sat back and pressed her palms together between her knees, frowning at whatever bit of Derek she could see—an arm, a shoulder, a bit of hair through the seat. She had always been all about danger and going off into the unknown; she put on a brave face and learned to talk herself out of most any situation. She could throw a punch or two, but words were her best weapon. She had no idea who Stiles and Derek were, how they knew each other or why they were heading "North…and then east" and why they had stopped to pick her up. She listened to them spat over how much farther they should drive. Derek finally turned them around and they got back onto I-5 and headed North-west.

"Ooh, look at that. Wolf Creek County Park!" Stiles exclaimed, hunched over his phone.

"You have got to be kidding me," Derek muttered in an exasperated voice, shaking his head.

"C'mon, Derek. I'm sure there'll be some authentic cabin hotel there," Stiles sniggered.

Derek shoved him into the door, but Stiles just kept laughing and only stopped when he noticed Kenzi looking at the front of the car like it was filled with aliens. "Sorry," he told her, tilting his head. "We should stop making her feel awkward, _Derek_."

"You're the one joking around. Talk to her."

"_She_ can hear you," Kenzi reminded them. "And it is seriously entertaining watching you guys."

They were just pulling into Medford when the gas light clicked on. Derek pulled off the interstate and into the first gas station that he found.

"Ooh, good, I need to get something to eat," Kenzi said as the boys got out; Derek to pump the gas and Stiles to stretch his legs. He pulled the seat forward for her and she hopped out. "Here's to hoping you won't leave without me." She disappeared into the small store to buy something sweet and unhealthy.

Stiles walked around the front of the Jeep and found himself being shoved against it. "If you keep this up I'm going to be a walking bruise in a week," Stiles said, ignoring the close proximity between his and Derek's faces. Werewolves had no concept of personal space.

"Why did you have to bring her into this?" Derek demanded.

"Why not? Look, she probably won't stay long. What's it gunna hurt?" Derek took a step back and angrily turned, running a hand over his face. "We're not just gunna leave her here. She's harmless. If you smelled or sensed or whatever that she was evil, then I'd kick her to the curb but you haven't, have you?"

Derek narrowed his eyes and turned back around. "No. I haven't."

"Then we get to drive at least through Oregon in a car with an attractive girl, am I right?"

Derek didn't reply, though his face said it all. He was amused, and he wasn't against Kenzi staying for blatantly obvious reasons. He could deal with it for a little while, at least.

When Kenzi came back outside, she was half expecting her bag to be sitting on the curb, but instead, Derek and Stiles were leaning against the front of the Jeep. "So you _did_ stay," she said, stopping in front of them with her arms full of convenient store snacks. "I think it's probably because I'm adorable but I really don't care." She shrugged. "Anything you see that you like, it's yours."

Derek raised an eyebrow and Stiles elbowed him. "She means the snacks, Derek," Stiles said with a shake of his head. He pushed himself away from the Jeep and around to the side to open the door so she could crawl in the back.

Once the three of them were inside and Derek pulled back onto the road, Kenzi laid out the snacks over her lap and on the seat and Stiles turned around in his seat, eyeing the multitudes of crinkly-wrapped goodies. She must have bought one of everything.

"Did you get any Funyuns?"


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer:** I own none of the characters or the places unique to these fandoms. I do own any original storyline ideas that come up within this writing.

**Title:** A Werewolf, a Human and a Stiles Walk Into A Bar  
**Author:** The Red Hoodie  
**Rating:** T for things  
**Shows:** Teen Wolf, Lost Girl  
**Characters:** Derek Hale, Kenzi "Williams", Stiles Stilinski  
**Chapters:** 2 of MANY  
**Summary:** AU! Stiles and Derek hit the road to find Laura. Only, they find Kenzi instead, a runaway with a personality to match that of the Jeep's owner. Things happen as the motley trio travel from California to New York in search of Derek's sister. The things that happen…aren't always fun and exciting, but they'll make for an interesting story to tell their kids; if they live that long.  
**A/N:** So…I got a good response from one of my lovely tumblr followers xD I really didn't even care if I got no reviews or likes for this fic, I was gunna write it anyway, but more reviews makes me write faster! I hope the AU-ness didn't confuse anyone and I hope to continue to clarify the story as things go on. Be warned, this fic is going to be a LOOONG (probably 20+ chapters?).

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**Chapter Two**

They couldn't _exactly_ stay at the Wolf Creek Inn, since it was some fancy historic place, which sent Stiles into a downward spiral of unfunny jokes for the night after he'd Googled the place. It was nearly eleven when they finally pulled into a Leisure Inn, and the front office was just closing. Kenzi wasn't about to share the same room as two strangers—no matter how much she had already grown accustomed to them in their short time together—and paid for her own room. The rooms were right next to each other, and she made them promise not to leave without her.

Stiles agreed, but Derek just huffed and disappeared inside.

On the trip to Canyonville, Oregon, they had played twenty questions. Well, Kenzi and Stiles had, at least. Stiles would answer for Derek whenever a question was shot in his direction.

"Why are you guys on the road?"

"We're looking for Derek's sister."

Kenzi was dying to ask why they were looking for her—was she kidnapped? did she just wonder off? was she abducted by aliens?—but held her tongue to use her questions wisely, and waited for Stiles' return question.

"Why are _you_ walking around alone in the middle of nowhere?"

"I'm sort of a runaway." It didn't matter that she was nineteen, she was still running away. And she was going to keep the reasons why to herself. "How long have you two known each other?"

Stiles glanced over at Derek, who was listening but pretending he wasn't. "Our whole lives, practically. We grew up in the same town but didn't really become friends until…I dunno, middle school, I guess."

She nodded. It made sense. They didn't look too far off in age, to be honest, so she bought their story.

"Are you going to pay your way?"

She raised an eyebrow and swallowed half a mini-donut. "Um…yeah. I don't mooch." She was probably not going to tell them how she'd conned a guy out of three hundred bucks the previous night. Some things were best left to herself. "Are either of you in college?"

Stiles pointed at himself. "I am. Derek…went, but it didn't stick."

"It stuck fine," Derek interrupted. "I just felt like making money instead of wasting it."

Stiles made an 'Oh you think you're so high and mighty' face and Kenzi laughed lightly, finishing off the last of the six powdered donuts from the convenience store. "Do you like wolves?"

She hesitated for a moment, wondering where the question came from, but hell, this _was_ twenty questions and anything could be asked, right? Those were in the rules or something. "Um…sure, I guess. I'm not particularly an animal person, but wolves are sort of cool, being all…_grr_ and furry," she said honestly.

"Would you listen to that, huh, Derek?" Stiles looked over and was surprised to find Derek _not _glaring at him.

"Shut it, Stiles."

Kenzi resisted grinning. "Do you two always bicker like you're married?"

"We do?" Stiles asked at the same moment that Derek said, "We do not."

"I think you do," Kenzi said with a shrug. "Which is pretty entertaining considering I've never seen two dudes go at it before."

"_Hey_, watch your words there," Stiles cautioned, jabbing his thumb in Derek's direction. "I don't think you want to see him angry."

"I don't see how this is necessary," Derek said with a spark of annoyance in his voice. "You're not learning anything useful from each other."

"Sure we are!" Kenzi said, sitting forward. "And I think we'll continue, thank you very much."

Stiles looked somewhat proud for a flash of a second before delving into the questions. By the time they were crawling out of the Jeep, they knew little tidbits of information about each other that neither of them would probably ever need to know, but it was a fun way to pass an hour and a half anyway.

Kenzi dragged her bag into her room and didn't turn on her TV. She heard the two of them arguing through the wall and shook her head. Less than two hours with them and she was already attached. She didn't like being attached to anyone but family, yet it had happened. She had no idea how, but it did. She wondered if she would really wake up in the morning and find herself alone again. She didn't like to think about it, and instead, busied herself with taking a leisurely shower.

In the other room, Stiles had smoothed out the map he'd snagged from the office over one of the two beds in the room. It was a weird map, showing the whole country, but split in half, with each side spiraling with the ink of half the US.

"So we're here," he said, pointing at the general area of southern Oregon.

Derek, who had shrugged off his jacket, sat on the edge of the mattress and looked over the map. "We'll go up the coast some more…then head east once in Washington." He trailed his index finger over the route. "We'll get on I-90 near Seattle and follow it across…see all these forests?"

Stiles nodded from his place kneeling on the floor.

"Laura _really_ likes forests. We'll go through Missoula. I think there's a wolf pack there, a hefty one."

"Okay, sure. Then what? Go south? Wyoming…isn't it pretty barren?"

Derek shrugged. "94 starts here…in Billings. Take that east, into North Dakota."

"Ah, the state everyone in this country seems to forget exists."

"There's hardly anything there." Derek squinted at the map. "We can take it straight to Minnesota and start heading south."

"Okay, okay." Stiles scrambled up toward his bag, opened up the side pouch and pulled out a trusty yellow highlighter. "So we're here…" He muttered his way through the general directions and ended the yellow line at Minneapolis. "How long is this gunna take?"

Derek stood. "Depends on how slow we go. Probably two weeks."

Stiles' eyebrows shot up and he looked up from the map. "Really?" He knew for sure that you could drive from coast to coast in four days if there were two drivers.

"Yeah. Like you said, I have to _sniff around_," Derek said sarcastically, disappearing into the bathroom.

Stiles wrinkled his nose disapprovingly at the use of sarcasm and folded up the map. This was going to be a long summer.

88

Kenzi slept lightly, not dreaming and tossing and turning. By the time the previously set alarm in the room went off at an ungodly six-thirty, she decided to just quit trying to fool herself and rolled off the mattress. She peeked outside and saw the corner of the Jeep sitting down in the lot and smiled before chiding herself and closing the curtain.

There was nothing good on the television. There were only about eight channels and all of it was news or preaching or infomercials. She sat through half an infomercial about a new workout program "guaranteed to shave off ten pounds in ten days" before she gave up, tossed the remote aside, made the bed, sorted through her entire bag and finally pulled on an outfit. It was nothing special, just black jeans, short boots and a skull covered tanktop over a grey long sleeve shirt. She smoothed out her hair—it was plain black and stick straight, and she hadn't added color in months—and repacked her bag before walking out. It was a little after seven, and she walked through the hall down to the elevator.

Kenzi meandered her way toward the tiny breakfast room near the office. She beelined it for the coffee machine and filled up a cup and doused it in sugar and cream and cradled it in her hands as she glanced over the small expanse of breakfast food. Danishes, doughnuts and muffins, a pitcher of orange juice and coffee. She hesitated over grabbing a muffin, before snatching up the biggest one she could find and sitting at one of the small tables in the room.

She was halfway through the muffin and just finishing her coffee when Stiles poked his head into the room and spotted her.

"Oh, hey, you're here," he said, stepping into full view.

"Mhm. Were you looking for me?"

He shrugged and poked through the donuts, grabbing a chocolate covered one and joining her at the table. "I guess. Derek and I mapped out where we're going last night."

Kenzi nodded as she chewed another bite of muffin. "Will you still let me come with you?"

"Hmm?" Stiles raised his eyebrows and swallowed. "Of course. I doubt I could last a week alone in a car with Derek."

"Great, so I'm a buffer? Way to make a girl feel special," she teased.

He scoffed and protested, but then Derek walked into the room, dampening the mood with the look on his face.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Stiles asked around a mouthful of doughnut. "What did that shower do to you to make you look so grumpy?"

Derek didn't answer and poured a cup of coffee.

Kenzi looked awkwardly between the two of them. "You guys are sooo dysfunctional."

"See what I mean about not being able to last a week with him?" Stiles pointed out.

"We should get going," Derek said, turning around. Kenzi and Stiles both hastily shoved the rest of their breakfast into their mouths.

"You're not gunna look around?" Stiles asked, though his words were muffled and hardly easy to decipher.

Derek took a sip of the weak coffee. "No. She's not here."

"She?" Kenzi spoke up. "You mean you're sister?"

Derek nodded sharply before walking out of the room.

"Touchy, touchy," she muttered.

Stiles opened his mouth to apologize for Derek's behavior, but instead he just shrugged a shoulder and walked out of the room. Derek pointed him down the hall, so he grumbled and went up to their room to get their bags. Kenzi did the same, before pawning off her enormous duffle on Derek—who gave her a look to kill which she dismissed—so she could sign out of the room.

Five minutes later they were on the road again, Stiles behind the wheel. The windows were half down because it wasn't too cold out and the crisp air felt nice. Stiles had control over the radio and had it turned up loud, the high lighted map had been given to Kenzi to follow and Derek was doing what else but glaring out the windshield.

"I'm not the best navigator," Kenzi said after an idle hour of driving. She still had the snacks from last night in the back seat and Derek had rudely asked for a bag of chips ten minutes ago. She hadn't given them to him until he said please. She wasn't at all intimidated by his glaring, which was startling. Everyone was scared of him because of it, and he liked it that way. Well, except for Stiles, who had become immune before they hit high school.

"Just follow the lines," Stiles said, turning down the volume. "Derek sorta knows where we're going. He has a plan."

Derek crunched down on some corn chips in response.

"And all of this is to find your sister?" she directed her question at Derek, leaning forward in the seat and looking at him suspiciously.

Derek grunted but didn't answer. Stiles rolled his eyes and ran a hand over his hair. Kenzi let out a sigh and leaned against the driver's seat. "C'mon, man, you're stuck with me for at least a little while, if you don't talk, this will be a miserable time," she said, voice stern as if she were a teacher addressing an uncooperative student. "For all of us," she added.

He didn't answer and Stiles was glancing at him sideways and Kenzi was sort of holding her breath because it was obvious that he had a short temper. After what seemed to be an agonizingly long thirty seconds, filled with nothing but the background sounds of a Radiohead song and the crinkle of the chips bag in Derek's hand, he replied.

"Okay." That was it.

Kenzi was expecting more, but resisted laughing at the absurdity of this whole situation. "_Okay_," she repeated. "There we have it. _Okay._"

Derek turned, meeting her gaze and startling her. Alright, so she might have just been floored by his eyes that weren't quite blue and weren't quite green and weren't actually glaring at this very second, but she brushed it aside as fast as she could.

"Pfffft, don't give me that look!" She might have shrunk back into the backseat an inch or two. "I just want to know what kind of folks I'm traveling with."

"Folks?" Stiles piped up. "Folks are what you call your parents or the random group of sixty year olds who go to dancing lessons and then stop by the diner near your house. Young people, _us_, we're not folks."

"Okay sorry, slip of the tongue." She made a face at the back of his head, but he spotted it in the mirror anyway and she slipped into the back before he could paw at her. The cab fell quiet for a full three minutes and Stiles was just reaching for the volume when she appeared between the seats again. "Okay, so doesn't your sister know there's such a thing as a cell phone? Don't you have one? Couldn't she call you? And how old is she? I mean, if she's old enough shouldn't you quit the creepy stalker brother routine?"

Stiles looked warily over at Derek. "Uh…you might want to slow down a bit or he'll bite your head off." He wasn't even joking. He could even picture just what that scene would look like. It wasn't pretty.

Kenzi sighed and rested her elbows on her knees. "Okay, okay, sor_ry._ What's her name?"

"Laura," Derek replied, half distracted by Stiles stealing his bag of chips to finish off the crumbs.

"What? You can't crunch and talk at the same time," he defended himself.

"Laura?" Kenzi repeated. "Hmm…sounds wood nymphy." Derek growled. "What? It's a good thing! I swear."

"She doesn't like cell phones," Derek continued answering her previous question. "And she left without telling me, why would she call?"

Kenzi shrugged and let out a frustrated breath. "How can she not like phones? That's whack."

Stiles agreed with her with muffled noises, mouth full. Derek sighed and glanced at the side mirror.

"Do I have to repeat the rest? C'mon, give me something, dude!" Her first impulse was to slap Derek on the shoulder, but she had a feeling her fingers would be bent and broken if she did so she clasped her hands into fists instead.

"She's two years older. She's the only family I have left," he said bluntly. It didn't need saying that he wasn't exaggerating.

Kenzi's face fell and she sat back an inch. "Okay…enough sharing," she muttered, rubbing her palms together. "So how…how are we going to find Laura?"

"Derek's got that covered," Stiles replied, crunching up the now empty bag of chips in his fist and throwing it at Derek's feet. "We're just along for the ride."

"Heh yeah. If it was my choice, we wouldn't even be here," Derek grumbled. "I just needed your Jeep, Stiles."

"Me and the Jeep are a package deal, bro," Stiles said, motioning with his hands.

The corner of Kenzi's mouth twitched up.

"We haven't even been in the car for twenty-four hours and I'm ready to smash your head into the steering wheel," Derek said through clenched teeth.

"Again? Dude, it was one time, and you were covered in blood. I had to tell my cousin _something_! I babble under pressure!" In fact, Stiles had snuck out later that night because Derek was teaching him how to drive the brand _new_ Jeep—even though Derek wasn't even sixteen yet— that Mr. Stilinski had found and gotten for his son. They didn't even get to drive that night because Derek smashed his face into the steering wheel and Stiles had fractured his nose and there was blood everywhere. Derek never looked the least bit sorry…

"You couldn't say I was your friend? Why…why did you even go there, Stiles?"

"Like I said, pressure and I can't control my tongue."

"Wait…you didn't…" Kenzi caught Stiles' eyes in the rearview mirror. "Oh my god. You said Derek was your boyfriend?"

Stiles gripped the wheel and shrugged. "What? I said the first thing that came to mind!"

"You were fourteen!" Derek exclaimed, which was something for him, because he rarely raised his voice.

"And I had just found out…something that I shouldn't have," Stiles quickly finished, almost slipping out the 'w' word, but stopping himself.

"That you were gay?" Kenzi ventured to ask from the backseat.

"No!" Stiles nearly roared, which caused a ghost of a smile to appear on Derek's face, and Kenzi snickered in the back seat. "Can we just you know, drop this? I don't even know how we got to this subject in the first place. To make it clear, I am not, nor will I ever be gay. I had a girlfriend…" Derek raised an eyebrow. "Okay, I went on a date with a girl…once. Derek heard all about it, he can vouch for me. So you know, we can drop this. Hey look, there's a city sign coming up. Let's stop, okay? I'm sorta hungry again."

Kenzi settled back in the seat, chuckling softly.

"Let me see the map," Derek asked, turning in the seat. Kenzi handed him the map and he narrowed his eyes at it. "Eugene's right up here. We should stop there."

Stiles didn't bother glancing over. "Okay, okay. Just tell me where to go."

Twenty minutes later, he was pulling the Jeep into a café parking lot and bolting from the vehicle. Derek climbed out more slowly and Kenzi had to wait for him because the other side of the Jeep was filled with duffle bags and snack food.

She let out a satisfying groan once on her feet, stretching her hands above her head. "Oh god, I hate being curled up for hours…"

"It wasn't that long. Barely two hours," Derek said, screwing up his eyebrows. Stiles came around and opened his mouth to speak but was beat to the punch for once. "How did you manage to find the one person alive who's stranger than you?"

"Say what?" A confused look came over Stiles' face. "Are you annoying the guest?"

"Annoying? Who's the annoying one, Stiles?" Derek countered.

"You…" The look on Derek's face made him change his mind. "You…are not. That would be me. Stiles Stilinski, the annoying one. Everyone agrees? Yes, great. Let's eat."

Kenzi jumped and punched the air. "I could eat a horse. Or maybe a large dog," she muttered, crossing her arms and walking with a bounce in her step. She walked inside first, not really seeing if the boys were following. "Hi," she said to the cheery middle-aged woman who came over with some menus.

"Would you like a booth?" the woman asked, eyes flickering over Kenzi's shoulder. The girl turned and let out a sigh and roll of her eyes. Derek and Stiles were on the _other_ side of the door, obviously arguing.

"Um…yeah, please," Kenzi replied, following the woman. She kept her eyes out the windows as Stiles shoved the Jeep's keys in Derek's hands and stuck his head in the car before coming inside. Kenzi sat and thanked the waitress and watched Derek get behind the wheel and drive off. She furrowed her eyebrows and her stomach tightened because all of her things were in there.

Stiles came over muttered curses under his breath, slapping down the map he'd grabbed from the Jeep and sitting opposite her. "Freakin' maniac."

"Where is he going?" she asked, watching the Jeep disappear.

"What? Oh, to check around for Laura," Stiles said, randomly opening the menu but not seeing the words. His legs bounced under the table.

"Check…for Laura? What is he going to do? Go to the cops?"

Stiles glanced at her over the top of the menu. "I don't know." He did. But he couldn't very well tell her that he was going to go around checking out the woods to see if he could find her scent. "He'll be back in like an hour or something. Let's just eat."

He ordered a plate of pancakes and Kenzi opted for an omelette. "So what's with the map?" she asked once they were left alone with an empty table.

"Hmm? Oh uh…I don't know. Try to find some places…just look where the hell we're going." Stiles began unfolding and spreading it out on the table.

"Does Derek even know where we're going?" Kenzi asked under her breath. "Isn't this roadtrip his idea?"

"Mine, actually. He was going to steal a car, I came along…you know, the usual things friends do during the summer." Stiles shrugged, setting his finger on Eugene—it was one of the few towns in Oregon that showed up—when his phone rang. He pulled it out and blanched at the name that came up but he had to answer. "Oh, hey, Dad."

"I'm about to head out. Is Danny at your room still?"

Okay, this wasn't going to be a long conversation. His father was getting right to the point. "I don't know. I'm not actually there right now," Stiles said, eyes settling on Kenzi, who was biting her bottom lip and leaning across the table, nose just an inch from the map.

"Then where the hell are you?"

"Oregon. Eugene, or somewhere close."

"Look…Stiles, I'm not going to lecture…"

"Then please don't? Really, Dad. I'm fine. Totally healthy. Derek's taking good care of me," he joked.

"That's what I'm afraid of. You always came back beaten up with broken bones."

"You worry about me, I get it." Either Stiles was having the most vivid dream in all of history or he was in dire need of nutrients because Kenzi had her tongue sticking out between her lips just a little bit and her shirt wasn't nearly as see through and low cut in the car as what he was seeing right now. "Uh…so I'm alive, you're picking…up my things. Danny said he was leaving at like eleven so…you should get moving."

The elder Stilinski seemed to know he wasn't going to get anywhere with this conversation so he just agreed and hung up. At that very moment the waitress came over, interrupting whatever low-bloodsugar-induced hallucination Stiles was just having because suddenly Kenzi was scrunching up her nose and reaching greedily for her plate, her shirt wasn't so see through any longer and his temperature dropped to a normal ninety-eight-point-six.

_Oh damn._ This was going to be a long summer.


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer:** I own none of the characters or the places unique to these fandoms. I do own any original storyline ideas that come up within this writing.

**Title:** A Werewolf, a Human and a Stiles Walk Into A Bar  
**Author:** The Red Hoodie  
**Rating:** T for things  
**Shows:** Teen Wolf, Lost Girl  
**Characters:** Derek Hale, Kenzi "Williams", Stiles Stilinski  
**Chapters:** 3 of MANY  
**Summary:** AU! Stiles and Derek hit the road to find Laura. Only, they find Kenzi instead, a runaway with a personality to match that of the Jeep's owner. Things happen as the motley trio travel from California to New York in search of Derek's sister. The things that happen…aren't always fun and exciting, but they'll make for an interesting story to tell their kids; if they live that long.  
**A/N:** I'm going away for the weekend. I promised that I would post this before I left. Um…there's also a video to go along with this, you can see it on my YT page, xHAPpyProductionsx. Also…review and whatnot. It REALLY makes me happy. Also, it helps knowing how you guys feel about the characters and where I'm going. Because if you don't like it or have any thoughts…TELL ME.

* * *

**Chapter Three**

It was still brisk and chilly in the northern part of the coast, so Derek didn't have to worry about bumping into any hikers. It was still morning, the sun hadn't yet started to penetrate through the night's cold, and the air beneath the trees was thick and heavy. Laura _always_ went for a run. Always, as in daily, so even if she were traveling, she would have to have left something behind for him to find…if he was, that is, on the right track.

He had been carrying the weight of what he had done for two years. He should have told Laura…but he didn't want to lose her, and what he had done was unforgivable, even he knew that. He had followed her obediently the past two years, not ever straying, not ever stepping a toe out of line. He had become submissive even. Laura noticed, but chalked it up to mourning. It _was_ because of that, but mostly because of the part he had played in the deaths of his family. If he had told her, besides what would have happened to him, he worried about what would have happened to Laura. She probably would have taken his guilt upon her shoulders for no reason, because she _hadn't_ done anything, she hadn't been a part of his mistake. For now, he kept his head low and wallowed in his own guilt pool, shrinking away from the thought of confronting the hunters because he had never felt more like a pup then when he was pulled from class and confronted with the tear stained face of his sister and everything had changed.

It was easier to browse for oversized paw prints—of which he found none—than a scent, but since Laura hadn't been gone for that long, he figured it couldn't hurt to keep all his senses open. Laura had always been a better shifter than he ever was; she easily lumbered into a full wolf just three months after gaining her Alpha prowess. But since she hadn't bitten Derek, he didn't have that connection that came between Alphas and Betas that had been turned by them. It would have been helpful and this trip wouldn't have been necessary in the first place.

He roamed around aimlessly, stumbling upon no humans and telling himself that Laura was fine, wherever she was. He would find her alive and she would ream his ass for coming after him, but she would hug him and ruffle his hair and thank him anyway.

By the time he was driving back in town, he had been gone for almost two hours. It was longer than he'd told Stiles he would be gone for, and Derek didn't even care about whatever ranting he was going to have to sit through because of it. He spotted the two humans through the window as he pulled in, parked and pocketed the Jeep's keys as he shrugged on his jacket. The bell over the door jangled when he opened it and he cut in front of the woman who came up to greet him. She gave him a look behind his back before going behind the counter.

"Yo, Derek," Stiles said, spotting him. He was grateful that Derek was back. Kenzi and Stiles had to keep ordering coffee and were getting odd looks from the employees for sitting at the booth for _two hours._

Derek stopped, brows furrowed at the end of the table and Kenzi looked between him and Stiles before rolling her eyes and sliding over so Derek could sit. He did. And all she could smell was damp earth and pine like he had just romped through a forest.

"Find anything?" Stiles finished folding the map. He had tragically drained his phone battery Googling their route to mark cheap places to stay along the way and unfortunately, the restaurant didn't have any plugs and Derek had taken his charger, along with everything else, so he had been idly playing hangman on napkins with Kenzi for the good part of thirty minutes.

Derek shook his head. "No," he said offhandedly. He was distracted. Anyone could tell, even if they didn't know him. Anyone who _did _know him would notice how he was staring at the tabletop and not glaring at either of the faces near him, and that was enough cause for alarm. Derek really didn't know what he was thinking, overtaking this big of a task himself. Stiles, nor Kenzi for that matter, could help him find Laura. They were human, practically useless in all ways of tracking a werewolf across a country.

"Bummer, dude," Kenzi said, loudly finishing off her OJ—she had switched to juice after her seventh coffee—and pushing herself up onto her knees on the seat. "Uh…hello can we get like a menu again?" she called in the general direction of the waitresses before settling back onto the seat.

"We're not leaving?" Stiles asked.

"Not until Derek eats something," she replied in a no-nonsense tone. "I don't even care that I haven't known you guys for even a day yet, I'm not moving until _he_ eats something."

Derek didn't object. He was hungry, having run for so long on an empty stomach. He ordered enough bacon and eggs and pancakes to feed an army of children. Kenzi looked impressed.

"Did you go to the police?" Kenzi asked after the awkward silence of waiting for food. She—Stiles too—wasn't a quiet person, but she managed to do nothing but blow bubbles in her juice, glance between Derek and Stiles and tap her fingernails against the tabletop for seven whole minutes.

"What?" Derek asked, shaken out of his funk. He could smell the food and heard it being scraped onto a plate.

"To find Laura…did you go to the cops?" she repeated in a more description version of her previous question.

"No," he said, turning to watch his plate float towards him on the arm of a waitress. She placed down a fork and knife on a napkin first before the plate. She cautioned him that it was hot, but he wasn't paying attention and was grabbing the utensils.

"Who's hungry like a wolf, huh?" Stiles said, almost kicking Derek under the table, but his knees were stiff from sitting.

Kenzi leaned her elbows on the table and chewed on the cuticle of her thumb. "I think we should look through town," she said tentatively. She had to keep reminding herself that she'd only known these guys for about twelve hours. She was hopelessly attached, but that didn't mean they wouldn't kick her to the curb if she got too annoying. She had to scale back until they got to know her better before jumping to the big guns.

"I could do without sitting for a while," Stiles said. "I think my ass has been perfectly molded to this seat. I'm not sure if I can even get up."

"Why did you stay?" Derek asked, taking a momentary breather from shoving food into his mouth. "You could have gone and walked around. I would have found you."

Derek was being entirely less bitter and jackassy than usual. Stiles narrowed his eyes suspiciously. Sure, Derek was still hovering on the rude line, but his tone wasn't as short and barky as usual. Something must have gone on during his look for Laura.

"Why, does Stiles have a GPS chip on him?" Kenzi tilted her head in his direction.

Stiles held up his hands in innocence. "No way. My dad's a sheriff, he doesn't need a chip to find me."

"So how would you have found us, Derek?"

He doesn't reply, so Stiles does it for him. "He's like…his own police dog. He can find anyone if you give him a reason to."

"Why didn't you just take the Jeep and like…go?"

"Because the Jeep is Stiles'," Derek replied, 'obviously' dripping off his words.

"Oh," Kenzi said, widening her eyes and stretching out her fingers. "Just…Stiles told me that you were going to steal a car if he didn't let you use the Jeep so I just figured you were cool with…nicking things that aren't yours."

"I only said that to get him to let me use his Jeep," Derek said honestly.

Stiles let out a huff and Kenzi hid a smile behind her knuckles. "I am never believing anything you say ever again." Stiles crossed his arms and proceeded to try to match Derek's scowl and glare.

Derek didn't even notice. He finished off his oversized plate of food and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. Kenzi was too busy trying not to laugh at Stiles—who was in turn trying not to crack up and keep the Derek-look on his face—to say something to Derek about his lack of table manners.

When the waitress came over to rewrite their bills—while Derek was gone, Stiles and Kenzi had decided that they would each pay for their own food, Derek paid for gas and the rooms would sort themselves out—Kenzi made a face and Stiles burst out laughing, which turned into a cough attack and Derek actually grabbed the glass of water offered and tossed it at Stiles.

"What…the hell, man!" Stiles sputtered, suddenly taken by the hiccups.

Derek just gave him a look and the corner of his lips twitched up in a small triumph at shutting up Stiles for at least a moment before he slid out of the booth to hand the waitress money to cover his bill and disappeared outside.

Kenzi was still laughing softly as she scooted out of the booth and did the same. She actually raced outside and resisted the urge to jump on Derek's back, instead punching him on the shoulder. "Dude! You almost smiled in there! I think that's a good thing, right? I was getting a 'Oh, he never smiles' vibe off of you this whole time," she said, hugging her arms around herself as a burst of cold air breezed by. Her chinks went pink and her eyes were bright.

Derek—he was completely blaming his morning run for smoothing his normal edge—wasn't sure why she didn't bother him, or why he felt like actually smiling at what she said. He didn't, of course, because he was Derek Hale, and he didn't hand out smiles lightly. "No wonder Stiles likes you," was all he said before Stiles showed up.

88

Eugene had an effective downtown for wasting a few hours, streets lined with little shops, most of which were open thanks to the two hours wasted at the diner. Derek mostly trailed behind, while Kenzi dragged—literately—Stiles into all the quirkiest looking shops. She didn't buy much, just a thing or two that she thought she couldn't live without and that wouldn't weigh down her bag. Derek didn't say much, Kenzi talked constantly and Stiles did his best to put in a few words whenever she was taking a breath.

"Do you think we should get going?" Stiles asked during one of those moments, stopping and turning around quickly. Kenzi, who had taken it upon herself to guide him around town with a hand curled around his bicep, came to a halt. Derek almost bumped into both of them, but stopped before he made a fool of himself.

Before Derek could answer, Stiles' phone rang. Kenzi let go of his arm so he could answer, and idly scuffed her foot against the sidewalk, glancing over at Derek every so often while Stiles talked to his father.

"So Danny was there? Great. Did he help?" Stiles asked, shoving his free hand into his jeans pocket.

"In fact, he did. Stiles, you didn't even pack everything. I wasn't expecting having to put half of your things into boxes myself."

Stiles chewed on the inside of his cheek. "Um…yeah, sorry. I was in a rush to leave."

"You're lucky Danny was there. It wasn't even his job and he helped pack all your things."

Stiles made a mental note to call and thank Danny. "Look, Dad, you can shove all of the housework on me after I get home. I won't complain or anything."

It was obvious that his dad wanted to say something else…something about Stiles' behavior lately. Sure, Stiles had always been a little scatterbrained and found it hard to stick to anything besides lacrosse thanks to his three second attention span, but even this was a major change. "Alright," Mr. Stilinski finally said. "I piled the boxes in your room."

"Thanks, Dad. Oh crap!" Suddenly, the clouds that were nonexistent just minutes before, decided to send down a torrential downpour of rain. "Uh gotta go!" Stiles yelled into his cell before jumping under the tiny awning in front of the building, joining Kenzi and Derek, who wasn't overly happy about the rain and what it would do to washing away things he could track Laura by.

"Eww, no, why is it raining?" Kenzi whined, grabbing her arms around herself to hide the newly bought fingerless gloves from getting wet.

"It's a sign," Stiles said, tilting his head to look up at the sky. "Where the hell did those clouds come from?"

"Come on," Derek said, taking a step out into the rain. It instantly flattened down his hair. "The Jeep is just around the corner," he pressed when neither of them made a move to join him. Rolling his eyes in frustration, he turned and bowed his head as he started walking.

Stiles and Kenzi exchanged a look before they took off at a run, dashing passed Derek simultaneously. She unsuccessfully tried to shield her hair with her hands, and he got to the Jeep first, unlocking the side door and pushing the seat open for Kenzi. She let out a squeak as she ducked inside, flopping down on the seat as Derek abruptly pushed back the seat and got inside.

"Ugh, now my hair is gunna look like it belongs to a Muppet," she huffed as she looked at her drenched reflection in the rearview mirror.

"If I catch a cold, it's your fault, Derek," Stiles warned as he started the engine.

"My fault? I don't control the weather, Stiles," Derek countered.

Stiles made a face. "'_I don't control the weather, Stiles_'," he mocked, gulping when he saw Derek's face.

"You're lucky that we're in your car."

"Or my head would be smashed against something painfully, I know," Stiles said, pulling out onto the road. He turned on the windshield wipers, even though they didn't work all that great.

"You should let me drive," Derek said after a moment.

"What? Dude, no."

"I can see better than you."

"Screw you. No. It's a two lane highway, I can drive on a two lane highway," Stiles said, waving his hand toward the road.

In the backseat, Kenzi fished through her bag for a comb and was trying to brush down her hair so it didn't become quite so frizzy. "What time is it anyway?" she asked, scooting up in the seat and squinting out the blurry windshield. At least Stiles wasn't speeding, otherwise she would be worried about her safety.

"Like…two," Stiles said offhandedly, glancing down at his phone for a split second. "Why, do you have somewhere to be?"

"Ha, ha." She stuck out her tongue at him and sat back, before grimacing at her wet jacket and peeling it off.

They weren't really anywhere special. Once they were out of the city, there was nothing but farms to either side of the road, and since it was only the middle of May, they weren't all green and lush, but dull and boring. Stiles turned up the music louder than necessary. The channel was grainy and it wasn't even the best music, but it was something. They hadn't driven more than thirty minutes—the rain had stopped about fifteen miles from the city—when Stiles pulled over.

"What are you doing?" Derek asked as the Jeep slowed to a stop near some trees; the outskirts of the forest he had searched through.

"What?" Stiles furrowed his brow and reached for the door handle. "I've gotta take a leak."

"We were in the city for like the whole day," Kenzi quipped from the backseat, where she was curled up, bootless and jacketless, using their pile of duffles as a pillow.

Stiles didn't answer and scooted around the hood to hide behind a tree. Derek watched a car pass from the opposite direction before turning in his seat. Kenzi was snuggled against the lumpy mound of bags, eyes closed, but obviously not sleeping.

"Stop staring at me, it's creepy," she said without moving.

"What? I wasn't—"

"You were. I get it, I'm adorable, but it's creepy." She smirked ever so slightly and Derek nearly jumped when Stiles pulled open the door. It wasn't like the werewolf to get startled, so he grumbled and glared out the windshield as Stiles started driving again.

It didn't take long for almost all the trees to fall away. They drove through another quick shower of rain. Kenzi dozed. Stiles often went to start a conversation with Derek but got shot down when he realized Derek's mind was not even in the car thanks to the look on his face, so it was a quiet hour long ride down I-5 until they hit the outskirts of Salem. That's when the gas gage light beeped on. Stiles pulled into the nearest station. Kenzi fell off the seat and hit her forehead on the back of his seat when he stopped the Jeep.

"Oh, shit, sorry," Stiles said, making an apologetic face before hopping out.

She didn't say anything, but sat back and rubbed her head and blinked widely. Another gas station. Which was good, since their snack stores were running low. She quickly pulled on her boots, ignoring how damp she still was, and pushed on the back of Derek's seat. "C'mon, I've got to buy some stuff," she whined, pouting.

He growled low in his chest but finally got out and pulled back the seat for her. The chill of the air hit her damp clothes and she shivered, pulling on her equally cold and wet jacket. She started into the building, and was shocked when Derek grabbed the door after she'd opened it and followed her inside.

"Uh…itching for some snackage?" she asked as the door clanged shut behind them. There were two other people inside; one buying smokes at the counter and the other browsing the hot food at the far end of the store.

To be honest, Derek was feeling a bit weird. And it wasn't just from his run earlier and all that alone time he had to think about his guilt and Laura…but he wasn't quite sure what it was. "I need a drink," was his excuse, though he didn't walk passed her to the drink coolers. No, he stayed right by her as she tapped her chin with an index finger and surveyed the shelves of snack foods.

"Okay, the last place didn't have any of these," Kenzi muttered, plucking a ninety-nine cent bag of Cool Ranch Doritos off the shelf. "Hmm…Fritos? Good. Oooh, mini-Oreos!" She straightened her back as she came to the end of that aisle and swallowed, looking questioningly up at Derek. "Uh…do you want something?" The fact that he was still standing there next to her, and not grabbing a drink, or anything else for that matter, was a bit weird. No…it was a bit creepy, actually. But the fact that he had a face like he did helped her to not get _totally_ weirded out.

"No," Derek said, briskly walking by her to the drinks. He ended up grabbing the first thing that wasn't soda—it happened to be ice tea, which wasn't his favorite, but he would drink it—and walked up to the counter. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Stiles waving animatedly by the Jeep. "Just this and whatever gas the Jeep took," he told the teenager behind the counter.

Kenzi was just wading up to there with her hands full as he grabbed his drink and started toward the door. "Oh yeah, thanks for helping!" she called after him, dumping her armsload of things onto the counter and fishing out slightly damp money from her jacket pocket to pay for it. Luckily, the guy put everything in a bag so she got outside easier.

Stiles was leaning up against the Jeep's fender and Derek was behind the wheel, glaring through the window at Kenzi as if that would make her walk faster. In fact, she took her time, fishing through the bag and handing Stiles one or two things before crawling into the backseat. "Are we gunna keep driving?" she asked once Stiles closed the door. "I've always wanted to look around places called Salem." It wasn't a lie, actually. She had successfully listed all the towns and cities on the continent named Salem, though she hadn't been to many of them…yet.

"Really?" Alright, Derek sounded majorly ticked off.

"Yes," she said defiantly. "I'm just saying…I'm not—asking," she finished, though she was talking to an empty seat.

Derek bolted from the car, leaving the door open, and nearly getting hit by a car as he dashed across the road.

"What…the hell!" Stiles hissed, rushing around the Jeep, calling after Derek. He windmilled at the side of the road, not about to go across and get himself hit by a car. "Derek! What…what the hell…"

Kenzi stared at the space where Derek was a moment before, wondering what in the hell had just happened. She was crawling out of the backseat when Stiles came shuffling back, muttering under his breath.

"I'm sorry," she instantly said, going over to him and gripping the material of his jacket arm. "I didn't mean anything, I was just saying…he was being weird inside. Do you want me to leave? I can totally just take my stuff and go."

"I don't think it's you." Stiles thought back to how off Derek was when he came to the restaurant earlier.

"Shouldn't you go after him?"

Stiles scoffed. "No. Yes…probably. But I won't," he shook his head. "Let's just find someplace to park in town. He'll show up eventually."

"Does he have a cell phone?" she asked after they had both gotten into the Jeep. It was seriously a weird feeling for her to sit be sitting in the front. The seat was damp, but she couldn't even tell because her clothes were the same.

"Uh…" Stiles pulled his phone from his pocket—he had found a car charger for it stuffed in the glove box—and found Derek's number before hitting send. He didn't expect an answer, and was reworded with a gruff answering message and a beep. He hung up and put the Jeep into drive. "He'll show up. I'm his ride, I've got all his stuff." He shrugged and pulled out onto the main street.

Kenzi bit nervously on her lip, blaming herself entirely for Derek taking off. Stiles drove like an old woman, trying not to get too lost. He went down I-5 for a few minutes before taking an exit and headed toward what he hoped was downtown where they could find a parking spot for a few hours and wait for Derek to show up again.

What they managed to do was park at the farthest end of a parking lot to a department store and walk around. Stiles checked his phone and made a note as to where they had parked.

"Are you okay with leaving your car?" she asked. She had grabbed her rolls of money from the bottom of the bag before they left the Jeep, but she still didn't like leaving her things in there.

Stiles shrugged. "I am painfully optimistic," he replied, pocketing his phone.

"That makes one of us," she muttered, hugging her arms around herself. At least being out in the fresh air, under the sun was helping dry them out. She was certain her hair was a mess and she hadn't even grabbed a bandana to hide it. She frowned and kicked a rock. It jumped off the sidewalk and somersaulted into the street.

"Oh hey, there's a park over there," Stiles bumped her with his elbow and nodded down the street a bit where there were a handful of newly budding trees standing. She didn't say anything, but followed him down and across the street. "Okay, are you going to start talking? Because I'm getting worried about you."

"I single handedly broke up your broship," Kenzi said, sounding horrified. Thankfully they were at the park Stiles had seen and she slumped down onto a wooden bench. "I mean…I didn't know I had such dangerous power. If I had known, I would have been more careful."

Stiles was trying really hard not to outright laugh at her. Instead, he sat on beside her and contemplated what to say. "Like I said, it's not your fault." He was ninety-seven percent sure it wasn't, at least. He knew Derek didn't want her around, but he hadn't kicked her out of the Jeep yet, and he hadn't said anything else about having her along to Stiles about it last night in the room. "Derek is just being…Derek. Really, he was a pain in the ass to be friends with. I don't know how I was able to withstand it."

Kenzi bit down on her bottom lip and looked over at him. "Really?"

"Psh, yeah! I've seen him act worse. He's just worried about Laura." Okay, Stiles knew that was at least half the problem…but one could never tell with Derek. He wondered if maybe Kate Argent had popped up again, but pushed down those thoughts before they could grip him in fear. He had never actually met the woman—no, he'd just found her bra in Derek's backpack and forced Derek to explain, no matter that he had years and pounds and supernatural being-ness over Stiles—but what she had done…he pinned her up there with being as evil as Satan.

"Okay." Kenzi nodded, leaning back and looking over the worn down looking park. She crossed her arms. "Are they close? Him and Laura?"

Stiles took a breath, puffing out his cheeks. "I guess," he said, letting out the breath. "I mean…they're two years apart…their family was fun and close. There were a lot of kids and uncles and aunts and people all living in this huge ranch house…" Stiles was shocked by the wave of emotion that hit him with the thoughts. Yeah, he had known each and every one of those people who had lived in the house, all those people who had died in that fire. He didn't really think about it all that often, especially since Derek wasn't around. "Derek and Laura are your typical siblings, I guess. I dunno, I never had any."

Kenzi listened carefully and nodded. "So he's not gunna stop until he finds her?"

"Nope. Did I mention he's stubborn?"

"I sorta figured that out on my own," she said, starting to feel slightly better.

Stiles half smiled and glanced down at his phone. It was closing in on three-thirty. "Do you want to grab something to eat?"

"What?"

"Like, real food, not convenience store snacks."

"But…how will Derek find us if we go wandering around?"

He was already standing. "Like I said, he's his own police dog. C'mon." He motioned for her to get up and took a few steps backward.

She pursed her lips and furrowed her brow before finally giving in and joining him. "When we're talking about food do you mean…fast food or…'cause I saw a McDonalds sign down that way."

"That'll do," Stiles said with a nod, heading in the direction that she pointed. It wasn't a long walk to the magical golden arches, and the inside was warm and a little crowded, but not bad. They managed to get their food and find a two-person table without spilling any food down their fronts, so that was good. They sat right by the street-side window.

Kenzi was singing some sort of food song under her breath and enjoying being away from her slowly drying but still wet jacket as she poured ketchup packets into her meal lid and dipped in some French fries. Stiles took out his phone, and, out of curiosity—and after he'd taken an overly large bite from his burger—checked the lunar cycle. Because, honestly, he was traveling with a werewolf, he needed to know these things. And what he found was that he was way off with thinking the full moon was a while off. No…according to the internet, the full moon was in seven days. SEVEN! As in…a week! He nervously looked across the table at Kenzi, who was chewing a mouthful of Filet-o-Fish and looking content.

"What's the matter?" she asked after swallowing.

"What? No—nothing," he said, shaking his head and pocketing his phone. He was going to have a serious talk to Derek about this. They ate in relative silence, while he thought of this being the very reason why Derek hadn't wanted a human to be dragged along with them. Human plus not knowing about werewolves plus full moon…it wasn't a good combo.

They ate slowly and then roamed around the general area for a little while. By the time they passed by the park again and were heading back to the parking lot, Stiles was itching to call Derek again because it was getting cloudy again and it would probably rain soon. He didn't have to worry though, because when they walked around the corner of the building, there was Derek, leaned up against the grill of the Jeep, arms crossed, face sour.

"Derek!" Stiles called, picking up his speed. Kenzi kept back a few paces. "Derek, what the hell!"

"Sorry," he grumbled, though it didn't sound like he actually meant it. He looked passed Stiles to Kenzi, who was holding herself back, looking worried.

"So…I'm sorry if I made you…I dunno…should I go? Leave, I mean?" she tossed a thumb over her shoulder and took a small step back.

Derek sighed and pushed himself away from the Jeep. "No. You can stay."

She perked up a little bit and walked closer. "I'll just…sit quietly in the back."

He nodded slightly, and she thought he might apologize. "I'm driving," he said instead.

Stiles both nodded and shrugged and handed over the keys. "Yeah, sure, man."

The three of them piled inside. Stiles told Derek how to get back to the interstate and they were off again, heading north. After a few tense minutes, Stiles turned on the radio for some background noise. Derek popped open the lukewarm iced tea he bought earlier. Kenzi dug into her bag of Ranch Doritos.

"So, I've been hitchhiking from Los Angeles," she said suddenly, amid crunching down on some chips. "I say hitchhiking loosely, since I've been walking like half the way. Some truck driver picked me up for like a hundred miles…that's the best I've gotten until you guys showed up."

"Endurance," Stiles piped up. "I mean…"

"He means, you have a personality like his. Which is basically a pain in the ass and most people wouldn't stand you for that long," Derek finished.

"That's not…" Stiles said under his breath.

Kenzi raised her eyebrows. "Okay. Thanks for the honesty. You know, I was trying to tell you a funny story to cheer you up but I don't think I will now." She sat back with a pout and shoved a handful of chips gracelessly into her mouth.

"Hey, hey no! Tell us, talk to us. We're going to have to start enjoying each other's company if we're going to be stuck in this car for hours on end," Stiles insisted, almost turning around completely in the seat.

Kenzi eyed him before breaking down. "Okay, fine. So after the trucker I met a group of sorority girls on a trip to San Fransisco…"

* * *

**A/N: **Bahahaha. Anyone notice the Lost Girl line I put in there? C'mon, Kenzi had to learn her shiz from somewhere. Also…I shall totally explain Derek's weird behavior next chapter. Or at least…hint more at it xD


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